I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to food or small item containers and, more particularly, to an anti-spill container for food or other small items.
II. Description of Related Art
It is well known that small infants, when learning to feed themselves, frequently spill food from containers for the food. This, of course, creates a mess of food around the infant which must be cleaned up by the caregiver.
In order to minimize the mess caused by infants spilling food from their containers, there are a number of previously known anti-spill dispensers for milk and other liquids. These anti-spill dispensers typically include a valve which closes thus containing the liquid within the interior of the container when the container is knocked over to one side or on its top.
While there have been a number of previously known anti-spill containers for liquids, only a few previously known anti-spill containers for solid food are known. Such solid foods can include, for example, cereal which is placed into a cup and given to the child. The contents, i.e. the solid food within the cup oftentimes become spilled on the floor thus requiring cleaning by the caregiver.
An example of one known snack container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,717, entitled “Non-Spilling Snack Container”, issued 5 Dec. 1989. This container is constructed with a plurality of tongues that spiral inwardly to meet in the center and form a closure. Each tongue is joined with adjacent tongues by a pleated flange that folds out of sight downwardly into the receptacle. The purpose of the flanges is to eliminate the pointed tips, which might feel scratchy to a delicate skin of a hand or fingers entering the opening. However, structures similar to this are complicated and costly to manufacture.
An example of another known snack container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,656,514, entitled “Spill-proof Lid and Container”, issued 2 Dec. 2003. Containers of this type include a lid with a plurality of resilient flaps that extend inwardly from a bottom end of a flange attached to the upper edge of the container. The flaps have convex outer surfaces defining an inner trough adjacent the flange. The flaps are preferably formed of plastic materials and rubber materials. The problems with this type of container are that normal well known plastic materials result in sharp points at the center that have a tendency to scratch the hand and to catch the hand so that it can be difficult to withdraw. If rubber is used it can either have the same result or it will be so limp it will not properly close the container. Also, rubber is opaque so that the contents of the container can not be viewed from the top.
It would be highly advantageous, therefore, to remedy the foregoing and other deficiencies inherent in the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved anti-spill container that can be used without scratching the hand and/or catching on the hand as the hand is withdrawn.
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved anti-spill container that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.